Garden Update - May 13th.

Time to down tools and have a walk around, as is my custom once a week (when I can). The farm is calling and I'll be short on time for the next week for playing around, but things are progressing well as the temps rise.  A few casualties from the heat, and at this point it's very much 'it is what it is' for the early Spring planting. As temps start creeping into the 90's - any early spring plants will probably fry in the heat before they get a chance to take hold.

Still, the beans are up and flowering, already the nubs of a few beans can be seen.  I'll have to be devoting time and care to these for the next little while. If last year is anything to go by - I'll have to double down on the watering and really make sure I stick to my fertilizing and picking schedule.  After a great run last year I learned that if I keep them fed, watered, and keep up on picking them - you can get a fairly good season. This year I've doubled down in hopes to close in on how much I need to grow to seriously make a dent in our yearly veg bill.

Water is somewhat of a concern at the moment. When I started I prided myself on not needing town water - and my 50 gallon tub refilled enough that I rarely needed to hit the spigot.  Well the garden has more than doubled it's square footage since then, and I find myself reaching for the hose more an more.  This is a good time to start rethinking my water strategy and expanding.  I have a few ideas I'd like to put into it - but this is going to be a rather expensive and time consuming upgrade.  I hope to have enough available 'pocket money' to get a 255 gallon food grade IBC container in after the harvest - I'll have to pretty it up some though in order to swing it past the better half; HMV.

His Masters Voice

Peppers have sprouted and filling out next to the Eggplant. A couple of the Eggplant aren't looking so hot - but we'll see how they do.  It's too late to think about sprouting more. I do have extra peppers to make up the difference if anything fails - at this point every available square has something in it - it might not be maxed on each, but every space holds at least something.

Meanwhile in Chardsville - things are cruising along nicely, and I'll be looking forward to having some of this after work this week.  Cucumbers seem to enjoy it here, so hopefully I'll learn something from this planting and be able to do something serious with them next season - my stepdaughter loves dill pickles, so I'll try my hand at that and hopefully convert her somewhat to the virtues of home-grown.  Up front something is nomming on the cauliflower. I'm thinking slugs or snails - it's too much to be just sunspotting, and I always water after the sun crosses the house.  I have a couple of reserve plants that I could swap out if they go south - but I'd prefer to at least try and grow them this year, and try and apply what I learned from broccoli.

 

If things fail at this point I have plenty of reserve plants from my thinning. I put them into these pots and what lives, lives - as space comes available I swap them into the garden - a lot is taken up by the next wave of lettuce. Last year was a lettuce famine, so I'm hoping to change that this year. There's a little of everything here just waiting to be given a shot. I'm not so concerned about a few plants dropping out - I have plenty to spare.

Plenty of Tomato plants - I gave 4 away, though a couple seem to have stunted and Im at a loss to figure out why. Same soil, same seeds, same sun, same pots. *shrug* some things always remain a mystery.  This year I've also doubled down on the tomatoes.  I'll be keeping them within pots to limit growth, taking suckers away, and seeing what size tomatoes I get. I'm looking for an easy slicing sized to make my lettuce and tomato sandwiches through the summer.

On the Potato front - you can see everything is breaking the surface - the tater pot and the crate are neck and neck, but we've also got some sproutage happening in the garden bed itself. This is going to be a really interesting thing to watch, as we have 12 dollars in the balance and no real losers - I would have shown that the pot can be used for multiple seasons, and thus, is able to pay for itself. For the more frugal, the crate could potentially do the same job for $2.50.

No sign of life in the 5 dollar crate yet.  I'm not giving up, but it's not looking good.  There are just too many variables in there to troubleshoot accurately.  Old non-seed potatoes that probably were a bit TOO old to use. Pine straw mulch, and unlike my other crates, there is no real 'soil bottom' to grab into... I would put this as my #1 concern at the moment.. Stilll we have to try - I'm going to reevaluate it very soon.

The undisputed champ at the moment though is 'Granny Deals ditch and pinestraw'. Every seed potatoe has come up from multiple eyes, and growing faster and bigger than all other takers. It's still in its infancy so far, but I'm pretty amazed at the speed it came up. Amazed but not surprised. When someone in their 90's that's been doing this all their lives shares their 'secret method', you best listen up and listen good.  Our elders in gardening and agriculture are an amazing resource that are overlooked all too often. These folks have forgotten more than many of us will ever know on the subject of growing food.  Rather than dismiss it as 'the old way' - try what they say. When (not if - WHEN) it works, look to your resources, literature, and research to try and find out why... Folks laughed at the crazy natives chewing bark for aches and pains too - nowadays we call it 'asprin'.... just sayin'.

 

Finally a peek up 'squash alley' - all plants accounted for, healthy and growing - in between radishes have popped up, and I plan on planting more.  I'm not too concerned about the actual radishes at the moment - these are companion planted for pest control more than anything... That being said some nice spicy radishes for my salads would go down really nice.. Hmmm maybe I could swing a few more planters for the 5 dollar garden project.

Well, things are up and growing - I'm looking forward to some harvesting, and trust me, not a week of these updates goes by when I don't kick myself in the arse over missing out on late Autumn/Winter. Last year at this time I had fresh veg on the plate with every meal... Still, a lesson learned from a mistake is one you don't soon forget, and I won't be forgetting this one anytime soon.

Hope things are going well for the more northern folks, who are just now getting ready for their Spring planting.

Cheers! and good luck!